Eastway onwer xxx | Ottawa Citizen | Only Sports And Health

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Eastway Tank and its owner, Neil Greene, pleaded guilty to a total of three health and safety act charges on Friday and will be handed a fine for the explosion that killed six people at a truck repair plant in Ottawa.

Lawyer Donald Bayne entered two guilty pleas on behalf of Eastway, and one count on behalf of Greene.

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The court has yet to hear what kind of fine will be delivered.

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In an agreed statement of fact, read into the record by David McCaskill, a lawyer with the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development, court heard that a “wet test” at the Merivale Road plant went terribly wrong on Jan. 13, 2022.

Wet tests are commonly used in the truck industry to assess highway fuel tanks for leaks, along with their plumbing and hoses. Dyed diesel fuel is typically used in a wet test.

Court heard that the diesel fuel used in the wet test at Eastway had been contaminated by gasoline, which greatly increased the chance that its fuel vapours could explode.

The Ontario Fire Marshall investigation concluded that a gasoline-air vapour explosion occurred inside Eastway’s main shop.

Said McCaskill: “Eastway failed to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of workers. The defendant failed to ensure that diesel fuel to be used for wet trusting of trucks was not contaminated with gasoline or any other flammable liquid or substance.”

As director of the company, he said, Greene failed to take all reasonable care to ensure that Eastway used diesel fuel that was not contaminated.

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“Eastway did not have adequate procedures and training relating to the handling and storage of the fuel in the workplace,” McCaskill said, reading the agreed statement of facts.

The deal announced Friday comes more than two years after an explosion and fire ripped through the main shop of Eastway Tank’s Merivale Road facility, killing six employees.

It was among the deadliest workplace incidents in the history of Ottawa.

Last year, the Ontario Ministry of Labour filed six health and safety act charges against Eastway Tank and its owner, Neil Greene. The charges alleged Eastway and Greene failed to ensure a wet test did not produce an explosive vapour, and failed to ensure the process was carried out in an area without a potential ignition source.

The charges also alleged Eastway and Greene failed to take reasonable precautions in the workplace, and to adequately instruct employees on safe fuel storage and handling.

Individuals convicted under the province’s health and safety act can be jailed for up to one year — jail terms are unusual — and fined as much as $100,000. Corporations can be fined up to $1.5 million.

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The case had been scheduled for a two-month trial, but earlier this month it was revealed that a plea deal was in the works.

A family-owned business launched in 1968, Eastway Tank built, refurbished and serviced fuel and water tanker trucks. The work involved welding, sheet metal, painting, metering, electrical wiring and the repeated handling of flammable liquids

Transport Canada certified Eastway Tank to manufacture, assemble, repair, inspect and test certain kinds of tanker trucks used for the transportation of dangerous goods.

For more than two years, the families of those who died in the explosion received little or no official information about what caused the tragedy.

Some former employees, however, raised questions about the firm’s approach to safety, and former Eastway employee Josh Bastien has said his father, Rick, was so concerned about someone getting hurt at Eastway that he was looking for another job at the time of the accident.

Rick Bastien, 57, a mechanic and welder, was one of the six killed in the Eastway explosion. The others who died in the blast were: Matthew Kearney, 36, a service supervisor and calibration technician; electrician and airplane engineer Etienne Mabiala, 59; welder and Algonquin College graduate Kayla Ferguson, 26; electrician Danny Beale, 29; and Russell McLellan, 43, Eastway’s plant manager.

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The Eastway employees were just resuming work after lunch on Jan. 13, 2022, when a tanker truck exploded in the main shop.

The blast triggered a massive fire that took four-and-a-half hours for firefighters to bring under control. Officials at one point feared the blaze could spread to a nearby fuel depot on Merivale Road.

Criminal charges remain a possibility in the case.

In a statement Thursday, the Ottawa Police Service said its parallel investigation into the fatal workplace accident continues and is not affected by the outcome of the health and safety charges.

The explosion and fire at Eastway was the city’s worst industrial accident since August 1966, when the Heron Road bridge collapsed, killing nine construction workers.

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